I think I may have had a brain fart here...can someone post any/all the links info needed to do this xbox mod? I would like to try it, I have an xbox sitting around not being used. If it is a minimal cost I would like to try it out. I couldn't seem to sift thru the info above. (i am not xbox lingo savvy) I went to the site links, just don't know which "board" or "boards" I need.

thanks for the help in advance!!!!

Sure! It's fairly complicated, but if you like to geek out on projects then you'll love it. You can either do it yourself or pay a modder to do it; if you need a reference for good modders just send me a PM.

The first thing you'll need to do is buy a modchip, which costs $20. This is really the only thing that is "required" for a modded Xbox; there are alternative ways to mod an Xbox but this is the best way. Here is a good place to buy it from:

Once you find the version, you can now find the appropriate installation instructions. Go this the following website, click on the "Installs" button, and then scroll down to the "DuoX 2 GS Cromwell/FlashBios Edition" section (NOT the "DuoX 2 GS Chip" section!). They have guides for installation on all versions of Xboxes - 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6.

So now you have the modchip installed. Make sure to plug everything back in, including the DVD drive and Hard Drive. When you boot up, it should ask you to flash the bios using firmware. If you've gotten to this point, congratulations - the hard part is over! So next you need to install the software. The software consists of 4 parts:

First, you'll need to get some firmware for your modchip. You will need to download the "X2 5035 bios" from torrents; you can find it on ThePirateBay.org. The firmware download will contain two files for different versions of Xboxes:

Be sure to use the correct firmware for your Xbox version! Rename the file that will work on your Xbox to "bios.bin". You need to follow a special procedure for burning the disc to flash the bios on your modchip. First, you will need to create a 100mb dummy file. Follow this tutorial to do so:

Next, you will need to create a disc with the BIOS files on it (bios.bin file & dummy file). I recommend using DVD-R discs because they are the most compatible with Xbox DVD drives. Just follow this tutorial: (they use Nero on Windows)

Then pop the disc in your Xbox and load up the new BIOS. Before we go on, I would recommend that you upgrade the hard drive while you have the Xbox open. The Xbox supports IDE/ATA hard drives up to 500gb. The jumper will need to be set to Cable Select (CS). You can use the stock drive, but you'll get faster and quieter performance with a newer drive. Even a 20gb IDE drive is just fine; the additional space is very useful for loading up software and testing out files. The only real reasons for putting a larger drive in are (1) if you want to copy lots of Xbox games to the hard drive or (2) you want to store your multimedia on the Xbox itself rather than streaming it across your network. If you choose to use the stock drive, you'll have to modify parts of this tutorial (you're on your own for that!). Just grab a cheap used drive off ebay for a few bucks if you don't have a spare one.

So let's recap. You've done the following so far:

1. Bought a modchip
2. Opened your Xbox
3. Identified which version your Xbox is
4. Installed the modchip by soldering
5. Flash the BIOS with the appropriate firmware
6. Upgraded the hard drive

If your Xbox is working after the modchip and BIOS installation, then you're all set to begin installing the rest of the software...

Software

Next you will need to reformat the Xbox's hard drive and then install the modded Xbox software. For that you will need a special formatting disc. The best one is the Slayers 2.7 disc. You can find this on torrents as well. ThePirateBay.org has it listed under "Slayers Evox 2.7 FINAL". It's an executable that creates an ISO for you to burn to disc. Again, I recommend using a DVD-R disc for compatibility reasons. Just follow the instructions after you run the EXE to get the ISO extracted, then burn it to disc. When you have the Slayers disc ready, pop it in your Xbox. Use the following sequence to do a proper installation:

So now you have (1) formatted the hard drive, (2) installed the modded Xbox software, and (3) set Xbox Media Center to be the default bootup system. Next you will need to install the latest version of Xbox Media Center (XBMC) - the Slayers disc comes with an old version just to get you started. I'd recommend reading up on the legalities of using XBMC beforehand. XBMC comes pre-compiled in two flavors: Tech and Pimped. You'll want to download the Pimped version off the torrents, again ThePirateBay.org and many other sites work fine. Do a search for "xbmc pimped" and grab the one with the latest date on it. They continually update the software. The latest version I've seen at the time of posting is "XBMC-2007-07-08-PIMPED". You may need to search a few torrents to find the latest version, such as Torrentspy.com. Special note: I played around with some of the newer versions and the AppleTV skin doesn't work too well. Download this version to get the best results: XBMC-2007-05-27-PIMPED-linksboks

XBMC needs to be installed via FTP, not disc. You can't copy over the new XBMC while XBMC is running, so next you will need to boot into a different dashboard (modded Xboxes have several different dashboards which are like different operating systems, sort of). I would recommend either Avalaunch or UnleashX. In XBMC, go into My Programs > Programs > Avalaunch. The Avalaunch dashboard will boot up; the FTP address will be in the lower-left corner. It's usually either 192.168.1.45, 192.168.1.145, or 192.168.1.200. The username and password should both be "xbox". Next, get some FTP software and log in to your Xbox. If you don't have any FTP software, I recommend using FileZilla for Windows - it's free and very easy to use:

So log into the FTP server on your Xbox and navigate to F:\Apps. You will see a folder called XBMC there. Rename it to "XBMC2", then copy over your freshly-downloaded copy of XBMC (be sure the folder is named "XBMC"). The reason for renaming the old XBMC folder instead of deleting it is so that you have a backup copy of XBMC just in case anything goes wrong. That's all there is to installing software on a modded Xbox - just copy it over to the FTP server! It makes upgrading a painless process.

Go ahead and reboot and your Xbox will boot into the new version of XBMC. Whew, almost done! Now we have to setup the AppleTV skin and then tweak the system to your liking. First, go into the skins directory by navigating to System > Settings > Appearance > Look and Feel > Skin. Select the xTV skin and give it a few seconds to reload. Your Xbox will now look like AppleTV. But we're not quite done yet! Now we have to tweak the skin! First, download this ZIP package:

2. Go to System > Settings > Apperance > Screen > Video Calibration... This lets you tweak the Xbox output to fit your TV set. Use the left joystick to move the top left arrow into the corner, press A, do the same to the bottom right arrow, press A, adjust the subtitles bar up or down if you want, press A, then use the left joystick to adjust the center box so that it is square, then press A. Press B to exit; now your screen is calibrated.

Now your Xbox is all set up. The very last thing you have to do is setup your sources if you want to stream content from your network. For example, you may want to hook it up to iTunes to play music (remember that the Xbox cannot play music with DRM!) or make a file share to stream movies. For info on setting up iTunes streaming, go to the "Syncing With iTunes" section here:

You can also simply setup a shared folder for your music & movies. You can either do this from within XBMC or via FTP from your computer. All you have to do is open the /F/Apps/XBMC/UserData/sources.xml and add your own defaults and paths. It's very straightforward.

So let's recap again. You've completed the following:

1. Used Slayers 2.7 to format the hard drive, install the software, and set XBMC as the default dashboard (aka boot system)
2. Copied the latest version of XBMC over via FTP
3. Setup XBMC to emulate AppleTV
4. Added network paths for playback (optional)

So now when you boot up, you'll see the BIOS screen tag ("Xecuter2 Live Config Loading" or whatever) for a couple seconds, then about 10 seconds of black screen (since the x2config.ini removes all of the startup animation and logos), then the AppleTV splash video, then it boots into the AppleTV interface. Provided you set your defaults in the sources.xml file, when you click on Movies, you'll be taken to your network movies folder, same for songs, photos, and so on. Plus you can copy Xbox games to the hard drive, play old games on systems like SNES, Sega, Gameboy, listen to Internet radio, play YouTube videos, download Apple Movie Trailers, and so on. All for the price of an Xbox, modchip, larger hard drive, and couple hours of your time

Last edited by kaidomac on Thu Jul 19, 2007 5:18 pm; edited 6 times in total

kaidomac, OUTSTANDING!!!! Thanks so much, that is exactly what I needed. I have all the tools and even an extra HD to replace it with. It's a 30Gb that should get me started. 4 questions:

1)how does the HD need to be formatted?
2)Do I just swap the HD's, no need to do anything else? (formatting aside)
3)I suppose Xbox games will play fine...? After these mods. I do have the DVD playback kit, my son watches movies from time to time.
4)Can I use this with a wireless network or hard wired only?

kaidomac, OUTSTANDING!!!! Thanks so much, that is exactly what I needed. I have all the tools and even an extra HD to replace it with. It's a 30Gb that should get me started. 4 questions:

1)how does the HD need to be formatted?
2)Do I just swap the HD's, no need to do anything else? (formatting aside)
3)I suppose Xbox games will play fine...? After these mods. I do have the DVD playback kit, my son watches movies from time to time.
4)Can I use this with a wireless network or hard wired only?

Thanks,

1) You can do that with the Slayers 2.7 disc. Just follow the instructions step-by-step. I'll have the tutorial finished tonight, a few more tweaks left.

2) Just the jumper pin on the back by the connectors - switch it to Cable Select (CS).

3) Yes, Xbox games will play fine. You can even copy them to the hard drive using DVD2XBOX - this will make them load like three times as fast, both for the initial boot and for level loading. The DVD playback kit will work great; the Xbox controllers make an even better remote! I'll post details on that later. The only thing to watch out for is Xbox Live - after modding you cannot play on Live without another hack (requires a $10 EEPROM file).

4) You can use this on your wireless network. If you plan on doing streaming, you will need 802.11g. I can't guarantee that ISO files will play flawlessly over wireless, but I'm pretty sure that encoded videos will. I would recommend hard wire if you can do it.

I should also make another note - you can speed up boot time by removing the AppleTV startup video. It's not quite as authentic but if you're like me then you'll get sick of watching it after 5 or 10 times All you have to do is delete the following files in /F/Apps/XBMC/scripts/ :

startupvideo.py
intro.avi

And then remove this line from autoexec.py (just open it with a text editor):

The "TV Shows" button is a little quirky; I think it relies on a scan of your video library to procure TV Show tags. Since mine didn't have any, I kept getting a popup window instead of a directory. It's pretty easy to hack though. I set mine up to open up the TV Shows shared folder on my network; you can also set it up to run a script such as TivoX (a Tivo front end for hacked Tivos) or XBMC MythTV (a MythTV frontend). FTP into your Xbox and navigate to here:

/F/Apps/XBMC/skin/xTV/PAL/

XBMC has 4 sets of skin types: PAL, NTSC, PAL 16:9, and NTSC 16:9. The default files are located in PAL and PAL 16:9, so that is where you will want to edit the configuration file even if you are using the American NTSC like I am. If you are using a widescreen setup, be sure to edit the PAL 16:9 file instead. The file you will want to open is called "Home.xml". You only have to edit two lines of code.

Before you do that, you need to copy down your path. If you know the path, great. If not, bookmarket it in XBMC and then look at your "sources.xml" file in the UserData folder of XBMC and cut and paste it; that's what I did. My path looks like this:

Now all we have to do is insert that line of code into the Home.xml and upload it back to the Xbox. Editing a Home.xml file is very easy, simply open it in any text editor, change the line of code, and save it.

To find the two places you need to insert this code, open your Home.xml file find the following Control Type tags:

<control type="button" id="6">

<control type="button" id="26">
Just to be sure, the Description tags underneath the Control Type tags will look like this, respectively:

<description>Tv normal push button</description>

<description>Tv normal push button</description>
Underneath those tags a few lines down is an OnClick tag. Change it in both locations to looks like this:

Also, I added my Movies folder on the network as a bookmark, then set it as default. So now whenever I click on the Movies button it goes straight to the Movies folder on my network, but I can still go back to the root menu if I want.

With this setup, the Movies button goes to my Movies folder on the network and the TV Shows button goes to the TV Shows folder on my network, likewise with Music and Photos. Very nice!